John Gaythers Garden and the Stories Told Therein | Page 4

the sea did not get up they could make
themselves very comfortable as they were. But there were two men on
board who didn't take things easy. They wanted to know what had
happened, and they wanted to know what was likely to happen next. I
was one of these men, and a stock-broker from New York was the other.
He was an awful nervous, fidgety, meddling sort of a man, who was on
this cruise for the benefit of his health, which must have been pretty
well worn out with howling, and yelling, and trying to catch profits like
a lively boy catches flies. He was always poking his nose into all sorts
of things that didn't concern him, and spent about half of his time trying
to talk the captain into selling his brig and putting the money into
Pacific Lard--or it might have been Mexican Balloon stock, as well as I
remember. This man was tingling all over with anxiety to find out what
we had stuck on; but as he could not stick his nose into the water and
find out, and as there was nobody to tell him, he had to keep on
tingling.

"I was just as wild to know what it was the brig was resting on as the
stock-broker was; but I had the advantage of him, for I believed that I
could find out, and, at any rate, I determined to try. Did you ever hear
of a water-glass, miss?"
"No, I never did," said the Daughter of the House, who was listening
with great interest.
"Well, I will try to describe one to you," said John Gayther. "You make
a light box about twenty inches high and a foot square, and with both
ends open. Then you get a pane of glass and fasten it securely in one
end of this box. Then you've got your water-glass--a tall box with a
glass bottom.
"The way that you use it is this: You get in a boat, and put the box in
the water, glass bottom down. Then you lean over and put your head
into the open end, and if you will lay something over the back of your
head as a man does when he is taking photographs, so as to keep out
the light from above, it will be all the better. Then, miss, you'd be
perfectly amazed at what you could see through that glass at the bottom
of the box! Even in northern regions, where the water is heavy and
murky, you can see a good way down; but all about the tropics, where
the water is often so thin and clear that you can see the bottom in some
places with nothing but your naked eyes, it is perfectly amazing what
you can see with a water-glass! It doesn't seem a bit as if you were
looking down into the sea; it is just like gazing about in the upper air. If
it isn't too deep, things on the bottom--fishes swimming about,
everything--is just as plain and distinct as if there wasn't any water
under you and you were just looking down from the top of a house.
"Well, I made up my mind that the only way for me to find out what it
was that was under the brig was to make a water-glass and look down
into the sea; and so I made one, taking care not to let the stock-broker
know anything about it, for I didn't want any of his meddling in my
business. I had to tell the captain, but he said he would keep his mouth
shut, for he didn't like the stock-broker any more than I did.
"Well, miss, I made that water-glass. And when the stock-broker was

taking a nap, for he was clean tired out poking about and asking
questions and trying to find out what he might get out of the business if
he helped to save the brig, the captain and I, with a few men, quietly let
down into the water the aft hatch, one of those big doors they cover the
hatchways with, and when that was resting on the water it made a very
good raft for one man. And I got down on it, with my water-glass and
an oar.
"The first thing I did, of course, was to paddle around the brig to the
place where she had been stove in. She wasn't leaking any more,
because the water inside of her was just as high as the water outside; so,
if we could do anything, this was the time to do it. I looked down into
the water on our starboard bow, and I soon found the place where the
brig had been stove in, probably by some water-logged